Henry Spiller Wins Society for Ethnomusicology’s Herndon Prize
Henry Spiller has been awarded the 2008 Marcia Herndon Prize for exceptional ethnomusicological work by the Gender and Sexualities Taskforce of the Society for Ethnomusicology. Henry received the award at the SEM meeting held October 24–28 in Middletown, Connecticut. Gillian Rodger, chair of the prize committee, prepared the following award statement:
I am happy to announce that the committee has reached a unanimous decision that Henry Spiller's submission, "To Make Ourselves Complete: Stowitts, Javanese Theatre, and American Masculinities,” a paper given at the 52nd SEM meeting in Columbus, Ohio, is the winner of this year's Herndon Award. In this paper, Spiller explores the construction of an alternate masculinity by the American athlete and dancer Hubert Julian Stowitts through his exploration and depiction of Javanese dance. Drawing on a rich body of theoretical works on Orientalism and gender construction, this paper also shows an impressive sense of historical context, not only in the United States and Europe in the early 20th century, but also in Java at the same period, and deftly interprets a rich body of primary research materials.